George Steinbrenner

Chris O'Meara/Associated Press

Updated: July 13, 2010

George Steinbrenner 1930 - 2010

Overview

George Steinbrenner, who employed brash tactics and winning ways as the principal owner of the Yankees, was one of the most divisive figures in the modern sports front office. He died at 80 on July 13, 2010.

Steinbrenner bought a declining Yankees team in 1973, promised to stay out of its daily affairs and then, in an often tumultuous reign, placed his formidable stamp on 7 World Series championship teams, 11 pennant winners and a sporting world powerhouse valued at perhaps $1.6 billion.

Steinbrenner was the central figure in a syndicate that bought the Yankees from CBS for $10 million. When he arrived in New York on Jan. 3, 1973, he said he would not "be active in the day-to-day operations of the club at all." Having made his money as head of the Cleveland-based American Shipbuilding Company, he declared, "I'll stick to building ships."

He was the senior club owner in baseball at his death, the man known as the Boss.

A pioneer of modern sports ownership, Steinbrenner started the wave of high spending for playing talent when free agency arrived in the mid-1970s, and he continued to spend freely through the Yankees' revival in the late '70s and early '80s, the long stretch without a pennant and then renewed triumphs under Torre and General Manager Brian Cashman.

In the frenetic '70s and '80s, when general managers, field managers and pitching coaches were sent spinning through Steinbrenner's revolving personnel door (Billy Martin had five stints as manager), the franchise became known as the Bronx Zoo. In December 2002, Steinbrenner's enterprise had grown so rich that the president of the Boston Red Sox, Larry Lucchino, frustrated over losing the pitcher Jose Contreras to the Yankees, called them the "evil empire."

But Steinbrenner and the Yankees thrived through all the arguments, all the turmoil, all the bombast. Having been without a pennant since 1964 when Steinbrenner bought them, enduring sagging attendance while the upstart Mets thrived, the Yankees once again became America's marquee sporting franchise.

Yankee Stadium underwent a major renovation in the mid-1970s, but that did not satisfy Steinbrenner with the passing of years and the building of many new stadiums with luxury boxes catering to corporate America. He cast an eye toward New Jersey, pressed for a new stadium in Manhattan and ultimately got a $1.5 billion Stadium built in the Bronx, alongside the original House That Ruth Built.

Steinbrenner found new revenue streams from cable television, first in a longtime deal with the Madison Square Garden network and then with creation of the Yankees' YES network. The franchise also engineered lucrative marketing deals, notably a 10-year, $95 million apparel agreement with Adidas.

Steinbrenner lived year-round in Tampa, but he became a New York celebrity and a figure in popular culture. He was lampooned, with his permission, by a caricature in the sitcom "Seinfeld," portrayed by the actor Lee Bear, who was always photographed from behind at the Boss's desk, flailing his arms and suitably imperious, while Larry David, the show's co-creator, provided the voice. George Costanza (Jason Alexander) became Steinbrenner's assistant traveling secretary, whose duties included fetching calzones for him.

In recent years, Steinbrenner, the Yankees' principal owner and chairman, had ceded increasing authority to his sons, Hal and Hank, who became co-chairmen in May 2008. Hal Steinbrenner, the Yankees' managing general partner as well, was given control of the team in November 2008 in a unanimous vote by the major league club owners, who acted on his father's request.

Early Years

George Michael Steinbrenner III, named for a grandfather, was born on July 4, 1930, the oldest of three children, and reared in the Cleveland suburb of Bay Village. His father, Henry Steinbrenner, graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in naval architecture and engineering and starred as a collegiate hurdler before taking over the family's maritime shipping business.

Steinbrenner graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts with a degree in English, and he ran hurdles and played football, as a halfback. He served as an Air Force officer, coached high school football and basketball in Ohio, and was briefly an assistant football coach at Northwestern and Purdue.

He returned to Cleveland in 1957 to join the family's longtime shipping firm, Kinsman Marine Transit, which carried Great Lakes cargo. He also operated the Cleveland Pipers, a professional basketball team.

In 1967, Steinbrenner began obtaining stock in the American Shipbuilding Company, based in Lorain, Ohio. He eventually took it over, merging it with Kinsman. By the time he gained control of the Yankees six years later, the company had greatly strengthened its operations.

The Boss

Gabe Paul, a veteran baseball executive, and Lee MacPhail, the holdover general manager, were expected to make the personnel decisions when Steinbrenner arrived. But he quickly became immersed in baseball decisions and craved the celebrity aura that could never have come his way as a wealthy shipping executive. He began to spend large sums to end the long pennant drought, starting with the acquisition of the star pitcher Catfish Hunter.

Steinbrenner, meanwhile, ran into trouble in a matter far beyond the ball fields. In November 1974, Commissioner Bowie Kuhn suspended him for two years - a term later reduced to 15 months - after he pleaded guilty to two charges, one a felony and the other a misdemeanor: conspiring to make illegal corporate contributions to President Richard M. Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign, and trying to "influence and intimidate employees" of his shipbuilding company to lie to a grand jury about the matter. He was fined $15,000 in the criminal case but given no jail time.

When free agency arrived as a result of an arbitrator's decision in 1975 that nullified the reserve clause, which had bound players to their teams, Steinbrenner stepped up his spending.

The Yankees signed the slugger Reggie Jackson and the ace relief pitcher Goose Gossage, and they won the World Series in 1977 and 1978.

Steinbrenner changed managers and general managers with abandon, punctuated by the bizarre comings and goings of Martin. The oddest sequence began on July 24, 1978, when Martin resigned as manager, presumably a step ahead of being fired, after saying of Jackson and Steinbrenner: "The two of them deserve each other. One's a born liar; the other's convicted," a reference to Steinbrenner's guilty plea in the illegal-contributions case.

After the Yankees lost to the Dodgers in Game 5 of the 1981 World Series at Los Angeles, Steinbrenner broke his hand. He said he had punched two men who insulted him and the Yankees in a hotel elevator. But the supposed assailants were never identified.

Another furor arose in 1985, this one surrounding Yogi Berra, the Yankees' Hall of Fame catcher, who had become the manager. After declaring that "Yogi will be the manager the entire season, win or lose," Steinbrenner fired him with the team off to a 6-10 start and dispatched the Yankee executive Clyde King to give Berra the news. Berra, furious, refused to set foot inside Yankee Stadium until Steinbrenner apologized 14 years later.

The Yankees struck a major financial coup in 1988 with a 12-year, $486 million TV deal with the Madison Square Garden network. But the team had been without a pennant since 1981 - a split season because of a players' strike - and free agents had been reluctant to enter Steinbrenner's turbulent domain. By 1990, Steinbrenner had switched managers 18 times and hired 13 general managers.

Then came more trouble. In July 1990, Commissioner Fay Vincent ordered Steinbrenner to step aside as the Yankees' managing partner for making a $40,000 payment to a confessed gambler named Howard Spira in return for Spira's seeking damaging information about Winfield. Steinbrenner had been displeased with Winfield's performance on the field, and the two had feuded over contributions Steinbrenner was to make to Winfield's philanthropic foundation.

Champions Again

Steinbrenner resumed control of the Yankees in 1993, and three years later they were World Series champions again, beginning a long run of dominance.

In 2002, an investment group that included the Yankees formed the YES Network to carry many games and broadcast Yankees-related programming. YES had $257 million in revenue in 2005, for the first time surpassing MSG as the country's top regional sports network, according to Kagan Research.

The Yankees' management achieved stability in the last decade as the team captured World Series championships in 1996 and every year from 1998 to 2000. But the Yankees faltered after that in their bid for another World Series title, and when they were knocked out of the playoffs by the upstart Detroit Tigers in 2006, speculation arose that Steinbrenner would fire Torre.

Torre, the manager since 1996, stayed on until 2008, and Cashman, the general manager since 1998 and a frequent object of Steinbrenner's criticism, remained as well.

Always fastidious about his own grooming, he insisted that his players shun unruly hair and beards, displaying something of the disciplinarian he had been at home, with his children. He admitted he had been overbearing and even verbally abusive toward them. His daughter Jennifer said in 2004 that her brothers had absorbed the brunt. "Let's put it this way: he had very high expectations of us," she said.

In April 2010, Forbes magazine estimated the Yankees' value at $1.6 billion.

Steinbrenner's death came nine months after the Yankees won their first World Series title since 2000, clinching their six-game victory over the Philadelphia Phillies at his new Yankee Stadium.

In his last years, Steinbrenner seemed to mellow some, and he spoke of the deaths of many friends. He had been in failing health for the past several years and had rarely appeared in public. He attended the opening game at the new stadium in April 2009, sitting in his suite with his wife, Joan. When he was introduced and received an ovation, his shoulders shook and he cried.

Chronology of Coverage

Oct. 19, 2014

Dave Anderson Sports of The Times column observes that the only Kansas City Royals team to win a World Series, in 1985, did so under manager Dick Howser, who had been fired by New York Yankees’ principal owner George Steinbrenner in 1980. MORE

Dec. 8, 2013

Baseball Hall of Fame's expansion era committee will consider George Steinbrenner and his frequent manager Billy Martin, and Marvin Miller, who led the union to free agency. MORE

Jun. 28, 2013

Harvey Araton On Baseball column notes that New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez’s declaration of readiness on Twitter drew sharp response from general manager Brian Cashman, but says exchange does not match dueling of 1970s Yankees between owner George Steinbrenner and manager Billy Martin. MORE

Mar. 20, 2013

New York Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner is intent on cutting payroll by roughly $18 million despite resistance he has encountered as he breaks from the way his father George ran the team. MORE

Mar. 13, 2013

George Vecsey Sports of The Times column opposes New York Yankees change in strategy after death of former owner George Steinbrenner; says new management is less involved with the team and unwilling to spend whatever it takes to get best players. MORE

Mar. 2, 2013

New York Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner has remained calm despite team's disappointing 1-7 start; observers note that team's late owner George Steinbrenner, Hal's father, would likely have responded with far greater emotion. MORE

Mar. 13, 2012

Mary Jane Schriner dies at age 79, leaving behind well-preserved letters from late New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner; after Steinbrenner's death in 2010, Schriner wrote of their long-ago friendship. MORE

Dec. 25, 2011

American Basketball League survived for only a season and a half, but it was innovative, and gave a future New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner practice in hiring and firing. MORE

May. 10, 2011

Federal Bureau of Investigation documents reveal that former New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner cooperated on national security cases during 1970s and '80s and was willing to let the FBI stage an organized-crime raid at Yankee Stadium; his help led to his receiving pardon from Pres Ronald Reagan over illegal contributions to re-election campaign of President Richard Nixon in 1972. MORE

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October 19, 2014, Sunday

With the Yankees missing the playoffs for a second consecutive season, Hal Steinbrenner, the team’s managing general partner, borrowed his father’s tactic from the aftermath of the 1981 World Series and apologized to fans.

December 8, 2013, Sunday

The most rational way to rebuild the Yankees is to reconstruct a skeletal farm system, but with a deal near for the free-agent outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury, there seems to be no other option than to spend big.